Death is one of life's most difficult obstacles. Tim O'Brien has been exposed to more than his fair share of death. To deal with emotional stress, he developed methods to deal with death in his life. O'Brien's novel The Things They Carried demonstrates his attempts to make death less real through psychotherapeutic tactics such as telling stories about the dead as if they were living and conceiving of the dead as objects rather than as people. O'Brien explains how the stories told about those who have died are intended to keep the life of the deceased alive. The “weight of memory” was something all soldiers carried (14). Added to the physical weight of their equipment and the emotional burden of war, it was too much. In response, men have modified their perception of truth in order to lighten the haunting weight of memory. O'Brien suggests that "in a true war story, nothing is ever absolutely true," memory is altered to compensate for its weight (82). In this way, O'Brien and the rest of the men were able to use the "true story (179)." Stories distort the truth. Therefore, a well-told story can actually allow the dead to continue living. “In a story, the dead sometimes smile, stand up and return to the world (225).” This way you could “keep the dead alive” with “blatant lies, bringing body and soul together (239).” O'Brien remembers listening to a story about Curt Lemon. He remembers that “you would never know that Curt Lemon was dead (240). » It seemed that “he was still there in the dark” and yet “he was dead (240)”. Similarly, O'Brien uses the story to save the life of her childhood friend, "not her body – her life (236)." In her stories, Linda “can smile and sit down. She can stretch out her hand (236). » It allows it to come to life and "touch [h...... the middle of a paper... without practicing adaptation techniques". War is hell. . . war is mystery, terror, adventure, courage, discovery and despair. . . war is wicked (80). “When all this happened, it wasn't like 'in a movie you're not a hero and all you can do is moan and wait' (211). "O'Brien and the rest of the soldiers were just ordinary people thrust into extraordinary situations. They needed to tell blatant lies" to "bring body and soul together" (239). They needed to eliminate reality from the As ordinary people, they were not able to cope with the devastating realities of death and war so they had to develop coping skills. , Linda, the same way he approaches the loss of his war comrades, because it's the only way he knows how to deal with death. A skill he learned and needed during the Vietnam War..